#16: Boarding Brothers:

Drake woke up the next morning to the smell of pancakes wafting through his brother’s small apartment. Rolling off the sofa, he yawned, stretched, removed his retainer and slid into his slippers. Over in the kitchen, Jake was at the stove.

“Morning bro, you sleep well?”

Drake nodded. Actually, his neck was quite stiff, but he wasn’t about to complain.

“I think Nickelby went out for a walk, he seemed pretty stoked that someone else was making breakfast.”
Jake served up the pancakes and the brothers sat down to eat.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” asked Jake.

“I’ll head down to the police station; see if I can have a word with some of our friends regarding the whereabouts of their leader.”

“Sweet,” said Jake. “Well, I better make tracks, gotta get ready for the lunch rush. Good luck with your investigation, Sherlock.”

Drake would have replied, but he was busy devouring the pancakes as though they could be snatched away from him at any second....

#17: Independent Interrogation.

The Marauder didn’t even look up when Drake entered the interrogation room and sat down opposite him.

“So, Wayne is it?”
The Marauder said nothing.
“Sorry about shooting you last night, but I don’t tend to react well when someone is trying to brain me with a bike-chain.”
“Whaddaya want?” snarled Wayne.
“Just some information.”
“What makes you think I’m gonna tell you anything?”

“To the point? I want to meet with your leader. Our little run-in yesterday showed me that while the Marauders are an admirably spirited and tenacious lot, you aren’t very disciplined or skilled. I can change that. I’d like to offer my services to you as a fight instructor. I can teach you methods that even the police don’t know about.”

Wayne looked suspicious.
“How do I know you’re on the level?”

“I've already put three of your men in hospital and another three in holding cells. You know exactly what I’m capable of. With my help, you could even take on the mob. If you cooperate, you’ll be a free man tomorrow. I’ll see to it personally.”

Wayne thought for a while.

“Alright,” he said eventually. “We meet tomorrow night at Morrison’s Scrapyard, about three miles out of town. You can meet him there.”

“Thank-you,” said Drake, getting up to leave.

At the door, he turned and added “I’m afraid I wasn’t entirely honest with you Wayne. I’m not joining your gang, I’m taking it down and it’s all thanks to you. I’m a man of my word though, you’ll go free tomorrow.”

With that, Drake left the interrogation room, ignoring the barrage of curses from the Marauder.

#18: Locked, Loaded.

The next night, Drake went to Morrison’s Scrapyard for the final confrontation with the Marauders.

Nickelby parked about half a kilometer down the road, where he would wait in case there was any trouble. 

Drake decided that that he wasn’t taking any chances and would arm himself more thoroughly. 

He carried an MP 40 sub machine gun, modified to fire tranquillizer darts, while a Mateba auto-revolver loaded with rubber bullets rested in the hip-holster on one leg and a telescopic truncheon in a pouch on the other.
His Winchester- reloaded and recharged- hung in a sling over his shoulder and he wore body armour under a black tracksuit. Finally he attached an infra-red eyepiece to his headband.

Farewelling his butler, Drake set off at a jog towards the scrapyard....